Teaching World War I in the 21st Century 1 | Page 10

OPPORTUNITIES
SEIZED,
OPPORTUNITIES
DENIED:
WORLD WAR I IN ASIA
Mark Johnson, Concordia International School, Shanghai, China

Then came your honorable war. The
newspapers said it was a world war.
It must have been for even I who
lived eight thousand miles away felt its
influence...I saw in this notice an opportunity
I had not dreamed would be mine.” 1

Both China and Japan saw World War I as an

opportunity to advance their strategic interests in

Asia. Japan expanded its territorial claims as Europe’s
hold on Asian territories loosened. China instead

focused on providing help to the Allied war effort, in

hopes that contributing to an Allied victory in Europe
would earn China a voice in determining the postwar
situation and defining a new national identity for

itself. As the Chinese worker expressed in the above

quote, World War I also gave individuals never-beforedreamed-of opportunities to see the world and come
into contact with Western ideologies, doctrines that

and Chinese involvement in the Great War altered

the balance of power in Asia, foreshadowed further

conflict in the 1930s, and caused a surge of Chinese

nationalism infused with Western ideas gained through
the experience of workers who had labored close to the
front lines.

At the war’s outset, China quickly declared neutrality
on August 6, 1914. The recently formed Republic of

China was not sufficiently stable or militarily strong
to take an official role in the conflict. The warring

nations held territory throughout Asia, however, and

China wanted to prevent the conflict from spreading to
fighting between European-held areas in China. It was

believed that such strife would further weaken, divide,
and humiliate China.

Quoted in Xu Guoqi, Strangers on the Western Front: Chinese Workers in the Great War (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 2011), 50. Xu’s research is the
key source of information regarding the Chinese involvement in World War I. In addition to Strangers on the Western Front, also see Xu Guoqi, China and the
Great War: China’s Pursuit of a New National Identity and Internationalization (New York: Cambridge University Press, 2005).

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would influence and help to reshape China. Japanese

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